Last week, SMYS Founder Janie Garner, met with Johnson and Johnson Nursing and other Nurse Innovators to discuss innovation in Nursing and to announce the Nurse Innovator Quickfire challenge. The live panel discussion shared the thoughts and experiences of four nurse innovators and the process they went through to bring their innovations to fruition.

The Panel also announced the Johnson and Johnson Nurses Innovate Quickfire Challenge, inviting the more than 3.2 million nurses located throughout the U.S. to submit ideas for new devices, health technologies, protocols or treatment approaches that have the power to profoundly impact patient care and human health. The nursing innovators with the best idea(s) will receive up to $100,000 in grants and access to mentoring and coaching from Johnson & Johnson, via Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS to help bring their ideas to life.

Some would describe him as a promising Stanford student, and competitive swimmer.

I would not.

I would describe him as a 19 year old sexual predator who attacked a 23-year old woman, then got off with a six-month sentence because of a judge who isn’t fit to grace the bench. I would also describe him as a young man who is unable to admit when he has done something wrong, and who blames the victim of the sexual assault he committed for the whole scenario. He plans to start a charity to combat the ‘campus drinking culture’ instead of the rape culture in which he was an active participant. If not for two Swedish Grad students, he might have left a young woman naked, unconscious, and alone next to a dumpster; like the disposable object he thought she was.

He took an intoxicated and vulnerable young woman from a party and turned her into an inanimate receptacle for his sexual desires. He obviously did not seek her permission to do so, and had his attorney emotionally violate her in court. As if this young woman hadn’t gone through enough, the attorney efficiently assassinated her character on the stand. He placed the focus on the fact that she dared drink to intoxication, which is legal. He diverted attention from the fact that Brock Allen Turner engaged in sexual activity with her while she was unconscious, which is illegal. The attorney asked if she had a habit of cheating on her boyfriend, as if that is even in the same ethical universe. As if she were consenting to relations with a man who violated her unconscious body.

And dared to say a year later that this young woman consented to sex next to a dumpster.

At what point are we going to stop victim blaming and start teaching our sons that sexual assault is unacceptable? When are we going to stop defending wrongdoing on the part of our sons? At what point do we say, “Son, you have done something so absolutely wrong that I am not defending you with my money. Get a public defender”?

At what point will we stop condoning the assault of young women because they have had too much to drink? At what point will we stop thinking: “She Asked For It”?

There is a petition to recall this judge. Click here if you want to sign it.

You can start out by attending the Nursing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit and Hackathon in Boston on June 17-19! This is a terrific opportunity to meet people and share ideas. I am pretty overwhelmed by the sheer amount of talent and expertise in the form of industry leaders sharing their knowledge with the attendees! However, you may have some questions. I will try to answer them here:

What the heck is a Hackathon? This is a word which was created out of the words Hack and Marathon. Originally used in the software development industry, it has been applied to innovation in almost every field! Hackathons are useful in many industries, and healthcare is definitely one of them!

I am a nurse with a great idea for a new healthcare product, but I have no idea what to do with it. Is this for me? It is absolutely for you! Many of us come up with great ideas and have no idea what to do with them. We are caregivers, not venture capitalists. The mentors (and industry professionals) at the event will help teams figure out the steps to getting an idea off the ground.

Who are the Mentors? They are a group of knowledgeable professionals in several industries; most have a connection to healthcare. There is absolutely no way for me to highlight all of their accomplishments in this blog. Please click here for the complete list of mentors.

Will someone at the event do the work to get my idea off the ground? No, but you will get an idea of the PROCESS to get moving on your idea. The work is yours. Please read this article by Dr Marybeth Pompei,the Chief Clinical Scientist at Exergen Corporation, and also a nurse!

Who should I thank for this awesome event? Dean Nancy Hanrahan for taking the leap of faith to move nursing into the era of entrepreneurship!

The Summit has some great keynote speakers, including Kathryn Bowles, PhD, RN, Professor of Nursing University of Pennsylvania; Patricia Dykes PhD, RN Assistant Professor Harvard Medical School. Sr. Nurse Scientist and Program Director for Patient Safety Research & Practice, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, and Tiffany Kelley, PhD, MBA, RN who is the founder of Nightingale Apps. The Hackathon’s guest speaker is Janie Harvey Garner, (me) talking about how Show Me Your Stethoscope happened! 🙂 I promise to be way less impressive than the actual experts.

To register for this event, which is the FIRST OF ITS KIND; please click here. It is affordable and extremely valuable. If you only attend one conference in 2016, I would make it a point to attend this one. The cost for the summit is only $195 per person, and $179 per person if you register with a group of five or more! Bring a friend (or four)! The Hackathon is only FORTY BUCKS per person, and FREE for current students.

So, you should go to this. There will be a Show Me Your Stethoscope table, and we will be there with loot and tchotchkes for you. Come and visit me there!

Yes, I am talking about Harambe, the gorilla who was unfortunately shot and killed after a child climbed into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. I am sad that such a healthy and intelligent animal had to be killed. It is a loss for Cincinnati. Harambe was born at another Zoo, and brought to Cincinnati in 2015 as part of a breeding program. He was an endangered species, as well.

Also, I am glad the animal was shot rather than a three-year-old child being mauled to death. There, I said it. The child was way more important than that gorilla. Period. I love animals, and I am always supremely pissed off when people mistreat animals and then blame the animal for their own faults. However, this was a life or death situation. One does not risk a human child for the sake of an animal.

You can blame the child’s parents. You can talk about how a tranquilizer dart should have been used, or how the gorilla didn’t have any intention to hurt the toddler. You can Monday-Morning Quarterback all you like. His keepers knew what he was capable of, and they made a split second decision to safeguard the welfare of the human in the enclosure. Good for them.

Fact 1: That gorilla weighed 450lbs. Tranquilizer darts are known to agitate large animals until the drug has time to work. So, had the animal been shot with a tranquilizer dart, he may have decided to beat the child against a wall. He may have mauled the child to death.

Fact 2: Parents sometimes have to take their eyes off their children. In this case, the mother was distracted by another child in their party. I don’t know how many of you have children, but a toddler can scale a wall in seconds. A toddler can and will do all kinds of dangerous things, because they have physical mobility and almost ZERO fear. They don’t tell you to beware of two and three year olds for no reason. They really are terrible years. Seriously. My 9 year old saved the life of his two year old cousin when he nearly fell off a cliff. The adults were admiring the view for a total of 15 seconds, and the cliff was pretty securely fenced off.

Fact 3: No matter how the child wound up in the enclosure, the important thing was saving the child’s life. Gorillas are still not people. They are smart, they can do all kinds of things. They have emotions. They are not a precious human child. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. Safeguarding the HUMAN who wound up in that enclosure (through no fault of the Gorilla) was the goal. The goal was met. I am sad that it had to be that way.

You can rage about it. You can demand that the parents of the child be ‘held accountable’ in some way. You can blame whomever you want. However, I will sit over here and be thankful that yet another parent did not lose their baby. If the gorilla had been subdued with a tranquilizer dart, and became angry and killed your child anyway, all of these crazy people would still hate you. Because they are so perfect that an accident could never happen to them.

I am humbled that the original Rally Team (Doris, Cathy, Melissa, Pam) were able to get such great speakers.

You get it.

I am so thrilled to have met so many of you! The turnout was great! No Rain! Yay! I do have a blister on the bottom of my right foot the size of a small country, but I bet I will live.

So, next year starts today. Take off work on 5/12/2017. Do it today. I am going to try to reserve a block of hotel rooms while we are here. RSVP by leaving a comment. But do not just RSVP to feel involved. RSVP because you mean it. Be the change you want to see in the world. Ask 5 friends to go.